Maravi

(HERALD ZW) When dwarfish thieves in giant robes try to pilfer the struggle
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 22:21
Caesar Zvayi My Turn

THERE is a ruckus in South Africa over the opposition Democratic Alliance’s decision to use pictures of Nelson Mandela and Helen Suzman embracing, with the words “We played our part in opposing apartheid” on its awareness campaign pamphlet.

The DA’s attempt to put itself in the pantheon of the heroes of the struggle against apartheid has naturally angered the ANC, which said Helen Zille’s DA should not have used either of the two leaders since none were ever members of the rightwing party.

The pamphlet that identifies Suzman as ‘‘one of the founder members’’ of the DA, is one of several in the DA’s “Know your DA” campaign that has been launched as part of the build-up to next year’s general elections.

The ANC slammed the DA’s campaign as a “cynical and opportunistic exercise in propaganda”.

But the DA dug in claiming Mandela was a global icon and Suzman a member of a predecessor party of the DA.

Suzman, who was an opposition MP for 36 years, had been a member of the Progressive Party which became the Progressive Federal Party and later merged with other parties to become the DA.

The DA’s attempt to “steal’’ Mandela and Suzman was roundly slammed by the ANC which accused Zille of “deception and deceit’’ in trying to woo black voters

“This cynical and transparent attempt to rewrite history and to pretend that most of the DA’s members and leaders were not beneficiaries of apartheid but champions against that crime against humanity is dishonest and desperate,” ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman fumed.

Hellen Zille

Well if they ask me, Mandela was stolen a long time ago which is why he has been turned into a virtual mascot for any westerner who wants to appear politically correct after setting foot in Africa. That is why Mandela, who was deemed a terrorist by the westerners as late as his 90th birthday, has a statue in Britain’s Trafalgar Square.

This is because from the “terrorist’’ who was put in the slammer in June 1964, to the hero who ambled out of prison in February 1994, Mandela became the typical “good African’’ during his tenure as he did not upset the apple cart.

He left office leaving South Africa virtually the same way he had found it when he began his term at Union Buildings.

Be that as it may, this week, we celebrated 33 years of independence here. Thirty-three years during which we did the unthinkable by upsetting the colonial status quo. We dismantled the economic order inherited at independence that made us virtual hewers of wood and drawers of water in our own country.

We removed those structures and replaced them with a genuine, black, wealth-creating middle class that is creating a truly Zimbabwean economy.

We had every reason to celebrate our independence as we have both the crown and the crown jewels. And because of that you will not see the MDC-T trying to steal Robert Mugabe for use on its pamphlet because he is not the archetype of ‘‘a good African’’.

You will, however, see that quisling party trying to cloth itself in nationalist robes, claiming, as Tsvangirai recently did “to be there to complete the unfinished business of the liberation struggle.’’ Really, with the excitable Chamisa quipping, “the MDC is a creature of the struggle.’’

The MDC can only be situated in the struggle to the extent that it is home to the Rhodesian agenda which is why all ex-Rhodesian security services men and women found a home in its rank and file.

Tsvangirai’s kin in the struggle would be Morrison Nyathi, who joined and deserted the struggle before selling it out. For Tsvangirai to claim to be completing the “unfinished business of the struggle’’ is to mistake Zimbabweans for a pack of fools.

MDC-T represents a return to Rhodesia, a reversal of land reforms, and indigenisation and economic empowerment. An MDC-T government would reduce Zimbabwe to a banana republic, there to serve the interests of its Western handlers.

The liberation struggle was not waged so that black Zimbabweans would remain workers on white-held farms which is what the MDC-T has been advocating. It was waged so that the soil returns to its rightful owners. The struggle was not waged so that black Zimbabweans would remain mere blue-collar workers in white-owned factories and mines like what the MDC-T’s JUICE advocates.

It was waged so that black Zimbabweans get control of the means of production, and determine their economic destiny.

No sane person would have laid down his life so that he gets food instead of a farm, a job instead of the factory, flag independence instead of total independence like what MDC-T harps about.

It is also quite laughable for the MDC-T leader to claim that independence did not come with freedoms when he not only has freedom to front a foreign sponsored party but to openly consort with the country’s enemies without comebacks.

Tsvangirai was either simply exercising his jaws or does not know what the word freedom means.

Be that as it may, isn’t it easier for the likes of Zille and Tsvangirai — mere dwarfish thieves in giant robes — to fight on the right side of history and justice instead of trying to claim what they can never be identified with?

Labels: CAESAR ZVAYI, LIBERATION, MDC, MDC TREASON

posted by MrK @ 2:16 PM